Artio


Artio was a Celtic bear goddess. Evidence of her worship has notably been found at Bern.
Her name is derived from the Gaulish word for "bear", artos.

Representations and inscriptions

A bronze sculpture from the Muri statuette group, found near Bern in Switzerland, shows a large bear facing a woman seated in a chair, with a small tree behind the bear. The woman seems to hold fruit in her lap, perhaps feeding the bear.. The sculpture has a large rectangular bronze base, which bears the inscription "Deae Artioni / Licinia Sabinilla". If the name is Gaulish but the syntax is Latin, a dative Artioni would give an i-stem nominative *Artionis or an n-stem nominative *Artio. That would perhaps correspond to a Gaulish n-stem nominative *Artiu.
Other inscription to the goddess have been discovered in Daun, Weilerbach, Heddernheim, and Stockstadt.

Etymology

Her name is derived from the Gaulish word artos, bear, from Proto-Celtic *arto-, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ŕ̥tḱos, bear. A Celtic word may also be the source for the name Arthur.

Popular culture

Artio is a playable character in the video game Smite. She comes from the Celtic pantheon and is a melee, magical guardian. She can freely transform between her human representation and her bear form, both of which come with their own sets of abilities. Her kit mainly focuses on healing her and her allies and locking down enemies in her druid stance and then outputting large amounts of damage with her bear stance.